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8th Circuit Backs School District Consolidation
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2009/08/27 09:09
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According to Courthouse News, the 8th Circuit dismissed a challenge to an Arkansas law requiring small school districts to consolidate or be annexed by another district. Judge Gruender said the law makes school districts more cost-effective and efficient.
A group of taxpayers and parents banded together in 2004 to challenge the state Board of Education's decision to consolidate Lake View School District with the Barton-Lexa School District.
The consolidation was mandated by Act 60, which requires school districts with fewer than 350 students to be consolidated or annexed by another district.
Calling themselves the Friends of Lake View, the opponents of consolidation sued the state, its governor, the commissioner of the state's Department of Education and the Arkansas Board of Education. |
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FTC Reins In 'Debt Relief'
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2009/08/26 15:49
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According to Courthouse News, the Federal Trade Commission plans to combat telemarketers who advertise debt relief services that make deceptive representations to consumers. The agency's new regulation under the Telemarketing Sales Rule would prohibit misrepresentation and requires certain disclosures for consumer protection.
Such services often advertise they can reduce consumers' interest payments by specific percentages or minimum amounts, in exchange for a fee of hundreds of dollars, and falsely purport to be affiliated, or have close relationships, with consumers' creditors.
The Telemarketing Sales Rule requires that telemarketers soliciting sales of services promptly disclose the identity of the seller; the fact that the purpose of the call is to sell goods or services; and the nature of the goods or services being offered. The FTC would require the disclosure of the total cost of the debt reduction service being offered and the cost of repaying the consumer's debt. |
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Protection Denied To Ashy-Storm Petrel
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2009/08/25 09:22
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Courthouse News reports that the US Fish and Wildlife Service has completed a 12 month review of a petition from Center for Biological Diversity to list the Ashy-storm petrel as endangered, finding that such a listing is not warranted at this time.
In denying the Center's petition, Fish and Wildlife found that there was insufficient scientific evidence that ocean acidification has had a negative impact on the krill on which the petrel feeds. The agency also determined that previous actions to prevent light pollution at petrel nesting sites, such as a limit on allowable wattage, and prohibitions on night fishing near large nesting sites, are sufficient countermeasures to protect the nocturnal hunting of the petrel. |
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California's Nazi Art Law Unconstitutional
Headline Topics |
2009/08/24 13:48
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According to Courthouse News, a state law that allows Californians to recover art stolen by Nazis is unconstitutional because it infringes on the federal government's foreign affairs powers, the 9th Circuit ruled in a case involving a16th century piece by Lucas Cranach in the Norton Museum of Art in Pasadena.
The circuit found that the scope of the 2002 statute is too broad and goes beyond providing redress to California's victims of Nazi looting.
According to circuit Judge David R.Thompson, the law's language suggests that California's real purpose was to create a friendly forum for litigating Holocaust restitution claims, open to anyone in the world to sue a museum or gallery located within or without the state. |
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Military Workers Get $100K Death Benefit
Headline Topics |
2009/08/21 09:04
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According to Courthouse News, every workers-compensation death benefit to eligible survivors of certain federal employees will be for $100,000, the Labor Department says. The federal employees at issue, in new regulations under the Federal Employee's Compensation Act, are those who die of injuries incurred in connection with service with an Armed Force in a contingency operation. Survivors who already have received death benefits under another program will not receive the full amount.
Occupational diseases apply along with traumatic injuries, and it does not matter how long after that injury the employee dies. |
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Proposition 8 Trial Set For January
Headline Topics |
2009/08/20 09:09
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According to Courthouse News, the trial challenging Proposition 8, California's voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage, begins Jan. 11, a federal judge announced.
US District Court Judge Vaughn Walker will oversee the trial challenging as unconstitutional the November 2008 vote that defined marriage in California as being between a man and a woman. |
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Lawyers Ask Judge To Lift Ban On Electronic Cigarettes
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2009/08/19 09:07
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The National Law Journal reports lawyers for electronic cigarette distributors told a federal judge on Monday that their clients do not market their products as a way to quit smoking, and that the Food and Drug Administration was acting like a dog chasing its own tail as it tried to explain why it was barring shipments of the devices into the United States.
Appearing Monday afternoon at the US District Court for the District of Columbia, attorneys for Smoking Everywhere and NJoy asked Judge Richard Leon for a preliminary injunction that would lift the FDA's embargo on their products. The companies sued the FDA in April, claiming the agency had erroneously classified e-cigarettes as unapproved drug devices, and banned imports of them into the states.
Justice Department attorney Drake Cutini, representing the FDA, contended that the e-cigarette companies were marketing their products using health claims, including customer testimonials that the devices helped them quit smoking. |
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